Crossing The River Jordan

Today marks our 1 year anniversary as Georgians. I don't know if I can officially call myself one just yet, but the word ya'll has started slipping into my vocabulary more often. This year has been a wild ride filled with countless confusing moments. It was also filled with exciting new adventures that stretched us beyond our comfort zones, tested our faith and truly brought us to a closer understanding of God's promise.

This year is what I refer to as the "River Jordan Experience." My biggest hope is that we aren't seen as these great "faith steppers." That's not the point. That's not why we share the story. It's about what happened AFTER we stepped. Much like the story of Joshua.

9 Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God. 10 This is how you will know that the living God is among you...See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you...13And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.” ....15Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge,16the water from upstream stopped flowing.

This story made us realize one thing when we moved. God was calling us to something. We didn't know what that something was and we didn't know how we were going to figure it out. I believe there are very special seasons in life that allow for this kind of faith step. So we stepped into those rivers. Not blindly, confidently. Fully accepting whatever came as a result of that decision.

For us, the rivers came in a rush of bills and expenses. It came in the confusion of which direction to head, which opportunity to take, when the next opportunity would come, all while desiring an explanation for the chaos we had brought ourselves into. This seems dramatic, but there were days we felt so out of control of anything coming down the road at us. I'm sure when the priests stepped into the water there were sharp and slippery stones. Nonetheless their faith remained resilient. And as they stood on that faith, God was there. The rivers ceased and they continued to the promised land.

As we focused on who was with us rather than what was around us, it all came to a halt. The bills didn't stop and neither did the questions, but our fears and frustrations gave way to one thing, faith. It was the only thing that could be trusted.

And so we are here in Georgia. We weren't staying. We weren't going to have kids just yet and we weren't going to be working at a church. God took all those "will nots" based on our own plans and said, "Here you are. Be blessed." Isn't it amazing our "will nots" can be turned into the biggest blessings? :)

I will never tell someone that faith is easy. I can say, that if your faith is in the right thing it takes your focus off the uncontrollable and plants you in the foundation of a merciful and gracious God that loves you.